Thursday, December 31, 2020

District Judge Ridicules Trump Pardons

 

A Significant Portion Of U.S. Populace Are Imbeciles


 The chart above is from a NPR / Ipsos Poll -- done on December 21st and 22nd of a national sample of 1,115 adults, with a 4.8 point margin of error. The results were very disappointing. It showed a significant portion of the population believes ridiculous conspiracy theories.

Passing The Baton


 Political Cartoon is by Pat Byrnes at Cagle.com.

The Vaccine Is Not Getting To Recipients Fast Enough

The drug companies are producing and shipping millions of vials of the Coronavirus vaccine. That's encouraging, but it's not enough. A vaccine doesn't do any good until it is put into a person's arm.

And that is going very slowly. The Trump administration predicted they would have tens of millions of people vaccinated by the end of December. But only slightly more than 2 million have actually been vaccinated. That's pitiful.

The Trump administration badly mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic. Now they seem to be badly mishandling the vaccination of the American people.
 

A Dim Future


 Political Cartoon is by Dave Granlund at davegranlund.com.

Require Police To Intervene When Officers Break The Law

It is the job of the police to intervene when they see someone breaking the law. A reasonable person might think that would also be a requirement when they see a fellow officer breaking the law.

But in Texas (and probably a lot of other states), that is simply not true. The Texas Attorney General has ruled that the law does not require police to intervene when it's an officer breaking the law.

That must change! The law must apply to ALL people, including the police -- or it cannot be respected.

The editorial board of the San Antonio Express-News is calling for the Texas legislature to clarify Texas law -- making it the duty of all police to intervene when an officer is breaking the law. Here is part of their editorial:

Don’t police officers have a duty to uphold the law and protect lives, even when it means taking action against one of their own?

Texas lawmakers must make the answer clear when they convene next month.

The place to start is with the George Floyd Act, legislation that proposes a ban on chokeholds like the one that killed Floyd, a change in qualified immunity doctrines that shield even bad officers from lawsuits over their conduct, and a requirement that police intervene when a fellow officer is using excessive force. 

Introduced by the Legislative Black Caucus, the bill is expected to be the focal point for debate on statewide police reforms in the wake of Floyd’s death and the weeks of national protests over police brutality.

The issue of how to hold police accountable for failing to act against a fellow officer became more crucial when state Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion this month that Texas law does not include “an absolute duty for an officer to intervene” to stop another officer from violating the rights of a citizen.

The opinion was requested by Rep. James White, the only Republican member of the Black Caucus, who told Houston Chronicle reporter Taylor Goldenstein that the response underscores the need for legal clarity. He was surprised the duty wasn’t already clear. . . .

The city of Dallas and other departments implemented similar rules after Floyd’s death, but Texas legislators have the chance not only to make the policy statewide but to give it the force of law and mandate training to back it up and hold departments accountable.

Individual department policies alone are not enough. Minneapolis police added a duty-to-intervene policy in 2016 but that didn’t save Floyd’s life four years later. . . .

Lawmakers also should make sure these changes are fully supported by resources for training, which should be included in the long-overdue changes to the outdated and inadequate oversight of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.

As with many of the proposed police reforms, a duty to intervene will require changing the culture. A statute would empower officers who want to do the right thing but may fear being accused of “ratting out” a colleague or breaking the chain of command. . . .

Enshrining the duty to intervene into Texas law is a no-brainer for anyone who truly wants to get the bad cops off the streets and help the good ones do their jobs.

From Dumpster Fire To Decency

 Political Cartoon is by Clay Jones at claytoonz.com.

Georgia Breaks Record For Voting In A Run-Off Election

 


Wednesday, December 30, 2020

The Electoral College Vote Won't Change On January 6

 

Voters Want Compromise - But Don't Expect The GOP To Do it





 The charts above reflect the results of a new Huffington Post / YouGov Poll -- done between December 17th and 20th of a national sample of 1,000 registered voters, with a 5.6 point margin of error.

It shows that the voters want Joe Biden and the congressional Republicans to compromise to get some things done for the good of the country. They think Biden will try to compromise with the Republicans by an 11 point margin. But they think the GOP will not compromise with Biden by a whopping 31 point margin,

They are probably right. So far, the Republicans have shown no desire to compromise at all.

Time For 2020 To Go!


 Political Cartoon is by Rick McKee at Cagle.com.

Gohmert Sues VP Pence In Attempt To Keep trump In Office


 On this blog, I have called Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) "the stupidest man in Congress" many times. It looks like Gohmert wants to prove that is true. He has now sued the vice-president of his own party in an effort to make him violate the rules and declare Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 election when Congress meets next week.

Here's part of how Kyle Cheney reports Gohmert's crazy lawsuit at Politico.com:

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and President Donald Trump's defeated electors from Arizona may force Vice President Mike Pence to publicly pick a side in Trump’s bid to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Gohmert and a handful of the would-be electors sued Pence in federal court on Monday in a long-shot bid to throw out the rules that govern Congress' counting of electoral votes next week. It’s an effort they hope will permit Pence — who is tasked with leading the Jan. 6 session of the House and Senate — to simply ignore President-elect Joe Biden's electors and count Trump's losing slates instead.

The lawsuit asserts that the 1887 law known as the Electoral Count Act, the vague statute that has long governed the electoral vote counting process with minimal drama, unconstitutionally binds Pence from exercising total authority to choose which votes to count.

"Under the Twelfth Amendment, Defendant Pence alone has the exclusive authority and sole discretion to open and permit the counting of the electoral votes for a given state, and where there are competing slates of electors, or where there is objection to any single slate of electors, to determine which electors’ votes, or whether none, shall be counted," the suit contends.

The lawsuit comes before Judge Jeremy Kernodle, a Trump appointee to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. It's unclear if he'll grant the request for an expedited judgment.

Though the lawsuit itself is unlikely to gain legal traction, it does put Pence in the position of having to either contest the suit — putting him on the opposite side of Trump and his GOP defenders — or support it and lay bare the intention to subvert the will over the voters in the 2020 election.

Just Cause He Can


 Political Cartoon is by David Horsey in The Seattle Times.

WSJ Accuses Trump Of Helping Schumer And Biden


 

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Trump's Job Approval Has Dropped Since The Election To 39%


 

Trump Causes A Dilemma For The Republicans In Congress


Trump has finally signed the stimulus bill that would give most Americans a $600 check. But while signing it, he once again called on Congress to increase the $600 payment to $2000. 

That puts the congressional members of his own party between a rock and a hard place. They are the ones that demanded the payments be reduced to only $600, and refused to vote for a bill with larger payments (which Democrats wanted). Are they going to go against Trump (and risk his wrath)? Or are they going to kill the $2000 payments before it can become law?

The House voted on raising the payments to $2000 on Monday. They needed a two-thirds majority to pass the bill (House Resolution 9051) -- and they got it. They won on a 275 to 134 vote. 41 Republicans voted with the Democrats (evidently unwilling to explain to their voters, and Trump, why they would vote against it). Another 21 Republicans didn't vote. That was enough to get the Democratic bill passed.

Now the bill moves over to the Senate. The Senate resumes on Tuesday, and they will have to decide what to do with the bill. If a Senator votes against the bill, they will have to explain why to their constituents (and Trump)? If they vote for it, they will be going against the wishes of their party leadership.

McConnell may try to avoid having a vote on the bill, but I doubt that will work. Americans are going to want to know why the Republicans oppose the bill, and by not voting on the bill all GOP senators will be blamed.

It will be interesting to see what happens. Trump has screwed his fellow Republicans with his demand. What will they do? 

Ending A Bad Year

Political Cartoon is by Bob Englehart at Cagle.com.
 

10 Most Stupid Moments Of Trump's White House Tenure


 During his time in the White House, Donald Trump has done a lot of stupid things. Personally, I wouldn't know how to winnow that long list down to only ten. But Amanda Marcotte has taken on that monuments task at Salon.com. Here is the list she has come up with:

Here's a list of the 10 most jaw-droppingly stupid moments of Trump's White House tenure.

1) That time Trump suggested injecting household cleaners into people's lungs to cure them of the coronavirus.

2) That time he looked at a solar eclipse without eye protection — after everyone was repeatedly told not to look at the eclipse without eye protection.

3) That time he couldn't admit he was wrong when he tweeted that Hurricane Dorian was going to hit Alabama, and so he drew on a weather map with a Sharpie to make it seem like he was right. 

4) That time he threw paper towels at people in Puerto Rico who had just endured Hurricane Maria.

5) That time he asked members of the National Security Council if they could nuke hurricanes rather than letting them hit the U.S. 

6) That time Trump was told to talk about Frederick Douglass at a Black History Month event, clearly had no idea who that was, and while trying to bullshit his way through the talk, implied that Douglass was still alive. 

7) That time he suggested that his much-desired border wall could just maybe be buttressed with alligator moats. 

8) That time he asked Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, "Didn't you guys burn down the White House?"

9) That time Trump "liked" a tweet praising Rihanna. 

10) When he called the Second Epistle to the Corinthians "Two Corinthians."

So there's your top 10, with the caveat that it was hard — perhaps impossible — to narrow down that number in a satisfying manner, since Trump has done unbelievably stupid crap virtually every single day for four years. But that's why the internet gods invented social media and comment sections, so you can add your own to the list! 

The End Is Finally Near


 Political Cartoon is by Gary Huck at huckkonopackicartoons.com.

You Get A Pittance - The Top 1% Gets Billions In Tax Breaks


 The first stimulus bill was tilted toward the corporations and large businesses, leaving many small businesses out in the cold and giving most Americans $1200. The second stimulus is even stingier for most people -- giving them only $600 this time. But the rich will once again score big. There are $200 billion in tax breaks in the bill -- with $120 billion going to the top 1%.

Here's how former Labor Secretary Robert Reich describes the unfair stimulus bill:

Hidden in the bill combining Covid relief and government spending is a cool $200 billion in tax breaks. An estimated $120 billion of those tax breaks will go to the richest 1 percent of Americans. 

Those giveaways include:

—A $2.5 billion break for racecar tracks

—A $6.3 billion write-off for business meals, i.e. the “three-martini lunch” deduction

—A new provision under the Paycheck Protection Program that allows forgiven loans to also be tax deductible, giving businesses the ability to “double dip” into the program

The bill also creates an independent commission to oversee horse racing, at the behest of Mitch McConnell. 

There’s no question about it: This pandemic has both revealed and exacerbated our already staggering economic inequality. 

Republicans didn’t blink twice when they handed out $6.3 billion in tax breaks to their wealthy corporate backers, but when it came to getting direct relief to struggling Americans $600 was the best they could do. Their priorities couldn’t be clearer.

Hindsight


 Political Cartoon is by Ed Hall at Artizans.com.

Trump - "The Anarchist Holding The Match"


 

Monday, December 28, 2020

COVID-19 Has Killed Over 1 Of Every 1,000 People In The U.S.


 

China Will Pass The U.S. As Largest Economy In 7-8 Years


 The United States became the world's largest economy in the 1920's, and for about a century that has remained true. But it is going to end soon. By about 2028, China (currently the second largest national economy) will become the largest, and the United States will drop to number two.

Here's how Bloomberg reports this:

The Chinese economy is set to overtake the U.S. faster than previously anticipated after weathering the coronavirus pandemic better than the West, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. 

The world’s biggest and second-biggest economies are on course to trade places in dollar terms in 2028, five years earlier than expected a year ago, it said on Saturday. 

In its World Economic League Table, the consultancy also calculated that China could become a high-income economy as soon as 2023. Further cementing Asia’s growing might, India is set to move up the rankings to become the No. 3 economy at the end of the decade.

That's All Folks!

Political Cartoon is by Joe Heller at hellertoon.com.
 

2020 Guns Sales Larger Than 2019 For Every Month


 The chart above shows the number of NCIS background checks for firearm sales the FBI was asked to do for the years of 2019 and 2020. The numbers for December of 2020 have not been reported yet, but the other eleven months of 2020 all were higher than the same month in 2019. In other words, firearm sales were significantly more in 2020 than in 2019. That's not good, considering there were already more than enough guns in American society for every American to have one.

We have too much gun violence in the United States because there are too many guns, and the laws allow anyone who wants one to have one (including criminals and terrorists). And according to this chart, it is just getting worse.

NOTE -- The orange bars are for 2019, and the red bars are for 2020.

No Returns

 Political Cartoon is by Jimmy Margulies at jimmymargulies.com.

Trump's Not Having A Breakdown - Crazy Is His Normal State

 There are those who think Donald Trump is having a mental breakdown because of losing the election. But is he really acting any different than at any other time in his presidency? No! Crazy is his normal state!

Here's part of how Caren White describes it at medium.com:

Politico is reporting that based on his recent behavior, both mental health professionals and Trump’s niece, who is also a mental health professional and has had the chance to observe him for years as a family member, fear that Trump is having a mental breakdown.

I am not a mental health professional nor am I family member, but based on my own observations of Trump’s behavior since the 1980s, my opinion is that what we are seeing is actually pretty normal behavior for Trump.

The (COVID-19) Scream


Political Cartoon is by Luojie (The China Daily) at Cagle.com

Right-Wing Terrorists Plan More Political Violence


 

Sunday, December 27, 2020

71% Of U.S. Economy Is In Counties That Voted For Biden

 

Population In U.S. Had Smallest Growth In Over A Century


 The following is from APNews.com:

The U.S. population grew by the smallest rate in at least 120 years from 2019 to 2020, according to figures released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau — a trend that demographers say provides a glimpse of the coronavirus pandemic’s toll.

Population growth in the U.S. already was stagnant over the past several years due to immigration restrictions and a dip in fertility, but coronavirus-related deaths exacerbated that lethargic-growth trend, said William Frey, a senior fellow at The Brooking Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program.

“I think it’s a first glimpse of where we may be heading as far as low population growth,” Frey said. “It’s telling you that this is having an impact on population.”

The U.S. population grew by 0.35% from July 2019 to July 2020, an increase of 1.1 million people in a nation whose estimated population in July was more than 329 million residents, according to Census Bureau estimates.

An analysis by Frey shows that it’s the smallest increase this century and smaller than any in the last century as well. At the height of the Spanish flu, the growth rate from 1918 to 1919 was 0.49% — even with U.S. troops abroad during World War I.

The Northeast and Midwest regions of the U.S. had tiny population declines from 2019 to 2020, while the South and West regions had slight increases.

Among the states, Idaho had the largest single-year population increase, growing 2.1% to 1.8 million residents. It was followed by Arizona, which grew 1.8%; Nevada, which increased 1.5%; Utah, which grew 1.4%; and Texas, which increased 1.3%.

Sixteen states lost population, including California, the nation’s most populous state, which declined 0.18% to 39.3 million residents.

New York — the pandemic’s epicenter in the spring — had the nation’s biggest decline, losing an estimated 126,000 residents, or a dip of 0.65%. The Empire State has been losing residents since 2016, but the drop from 2019 to 2020 was significantly larger than in years past.

New York’s population decline was followed by Illinois, with a 0.63% drop; Hawaii, with a 0.61% decline; West Virginia, with a 0.58% drop; and Mississippi, with a 0.38% decline.

The estimates released Tuesday were conducted independently of the 2020 census, which is a head count of every U.S. resident, but they offer a preview of what the census may show once its data are finished being crunched.

The data from the once-a-decade census are used to determine how many congressional seats each state gets based on population, as well as the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal funding.

The estimates show that California could lose a House seat for the first time in the state’s history, while Texas could gain three seats and Florida could gain two seats, according to an analysis by Frey.

Five others states — Arizona, Colorado, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon — stand to gain one seat. Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia stand to lose a seat, according to Frey.

The Line For Presidential Pardons


 Political Cartoon is by Ed Hall at Artizans.com.

Twice As Many 2020 Gifts Will Be Returned Than In 2019


AP news is reporting that retailers are expecting shoppers to return twice as many items this year than they did in 2019. It will be about $1.1 billion of returns. Part of those returns will be because of a wrong size or bad color, etc. But that can't account for a doubling of returned items.

Part of it has to be because of the recession -- and the government's refusal to help hurting people. Many people will find they need the money much more than they needed the gifts (no matter how much they liked and appreciated the gifts).

Much of the pain of this recession is because the federal government (mainly the Trump administration) badly mishandled the Coronavirus pandemic. It's time for the federal government to step up and help the people it hurt the most.

Presidential Terrorist


 Political Cartoon is by Clay Jones at claytoonz.com.

Do Americans Care About The Lives Of Innocent Iraqis?

(The image above, from Karim Kadim/AP, is of Nisour Square, where innocent Iraqi citizens were murdered by Blackwater mercenaries.)

The following is part of a thought-provoking article by Sinan Antoon in The Washington Post. Sadly, he points out that Americans don't seem to care about the innocent Iraqi victims of violence -- much of it from American soldiers and mercenaries. 

We know too well by now where President Trump stands when innocent civilians are harmed or slaughtered. He has repeatedly stood firmly on the side of perpetrators — applauding, defending and, if necessary, vindicating them. Whether the perpetrator is a neo-Nazi in Charlottesville, a police officer in Minneapolis, or a Blackwater mercenary in Baghdad.

It was despicable, but not surprising at all, that Trump this week pardonedthe four mercenaries who were convicted of slaughtering 14 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square in Baghdad in 2007. This is not the first time Trump has pardoned individuals convicted of war crimes in Iraq. A year ago, he pardoned Edward Gallagher, a Navy Seal convicted of committing horrendous war crimes in Mosul. Trump later welcomed Gallagher and his wife to Mar-a-Lago.

In Trump’s world, men of a certain race, in uniform or not, carrying weapons and eager to use lethal force as they see fit to reimpose order on a chaotic world, are merely “doing their jobs.” Those on the other side of the barrel are painted as thugs or barbarians. Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater (now Academi), has called Iraqis “barbarians.” Impunity for pulling the trigger is to be expected. The perpetrators become the victims and the focal point of empathy and understanding.

The massacre at Nisour Square took place in the context of the Iraq War. And it is not an aberration, but one in a long list of massacres of innocent Iraqi civilians. From the massacre of 24 civilians in Haditha in 2005, to the gang rape and murder of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and the murder of her family in Mahmudiyah in 2006, to killing an estimated 45 people at a wedding party at Mukaradeeb in 2004. These and other massacres were courtesy of uniformed soldiers, not mercenaries. . . .

It is facile to condemn Trump, but do the lives of Iraqi civilians matter as much, or at all, for most of those who will condemn this pardon? Iraqi lives certainly didn’t matter at all for the George W. Bush-era hawks who beat the drums of the war and supported it, and who have since rebranded themselves as part of the resistance in the Trump era. Iraqi lives didn’t matter for all the liberal pundits and scribes who joined the war chorus as they, too, parroted variations on the official narrative before and during the war from their platforms. . . .

Whether visible or invisible, waged under a Republican or a Democratic administration, the war’s civilian casualties remain, for all intents and purposes, invisible. Those that briefly make a rare appearance, every now and then, quickly disappear into the vast landscape of American amnesia — a landscape already crowded with other bodies, indigenous and Black, that rarely seem to matter.

The architects, authors and chief perpetrators of the Iraq wars were pardoned in the public eye years ago. Their public appearances in the Trump era are unencumbered by the memory of their catastrophic decisions and actions, instead stirring liberal nostalgia for more “civil” and “normal” times. . . .

Amid the anger and shock over Trump’s latest pardon of war criminals, let’s not forget that there is already plenty of impunity to go around, as well as generous pardons, not only for those who pulled triggers killing innocent Iraqis, but for those who pulled the discursive triggers, too.

Trump's Schedule


 Political Cartoon is by Mike Smith in the Las Vegas Sun.

This Nation Is On The Precipice Of Disaster

 

Saturday, December 26, 2020

Objectively, Fearlessly, And Trying To Understand

 

A Bombing In Nashville Desecrates The Holiday


 As if 2020 hadn't been bad enough, we have a terrorist act to cap it off. Someone intentionally set off a bomb in Nashville. Fortunately, no one was killed. But there were people injured and substantial damage. I have to wonder if this is a result of Trump's refusal to accept the outcome of the election, and his approval of some of his right-wing supporters. Is this the opening salvo in the civil war Trump is trying hard to start?

Here is initial coverage from AP News:

An explosion shook the largely deserted streets of downtown Nashville early Christmas morning, shattering windows, damaging buildings and wounding three people. Authorities said they believed the blast was intentional. The FBI is leading the investigation.

Metro Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said police responded to a call of shots fired just before 6 a.m. but found no immediate signs of a shooting, although officers noticed a suspicious vehicle and called for a hazardous unit. While they waited, the vehicle exploded.

Aaron said three people were taken to area hospitals for treatment, although none were in critical condition. He said some people were taken to the department’s central precinct for questioning but declined to give more details.

The FBI will be taking the lead in the investigation, said spokesman Joel Siskovic. Federal investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also on the scene. The FBI is the primary law enforcement agency responsible for investigating federal crimes, such as explosives violations and acts of terrorism. 

Black smoke and flames were seen early Friday billowing from the area, which is packed with bars, restaurants and other retail establishments and is known as the heart of downtown Nashville’s tourist scene.

Grinch Steals The Republican Party


 Political Cartoon is by Rob Rogers at Counterpoint.com.

Trump Is Starting A War Within His Own Political Party

 

Friday, December 25, 2020

Have A Very Happy Solstice Season Holiday


People have been celebrating a holiday at or near the Winter Solstice for thousands of years. For some it's a religious holiday. For others, it's a secular celebration. However you celebrate the season's holiday, I hope it is a happy and safe one for you and your family/friends.

Half Of Voters Say Trump's Presidency Was A Failure



The chart above reflects the results of a new USA Today / Suffolk University Poll -- done between December 16th and 20th of a national sample of 1,000 registered voters, with a 3.1 point margin of error.

It shows that half of registered voters think history will judge the Trump presidency to be a failure. Only 29% think it will be viewed as great or good.

A Gift To Ourselves


 Political Cartoon is by John Darkow in the Columbia Missourian.

If You Are Not Slightly Terrified, You Should Be

 There's another three weeks or so left in the Trump presidency. And Trump has abdicated any interest in governing the nation. 

Instead, he is wholly concerned with trying to remain in power. He has tried to bully election officials, gone to court about 60 times to overturn election results, and appealed to state legislators.

None of that has worked. Now he is only left with extra-legal actions -- like trying to pull off a military coup. And he does have some around him, like the criminal Michael Flynn, who is urging him to do exactly that.

Trump has always admired autocrats, like Putin, and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he may resort to such extreme measures to remain in power. I doubt he could succeed in pulling off a military coup -- but it's terrifying that any president would even consider doing that.

Here is a small part of Joe Duncan has to say about this at medium.com:

If you’re not slightly terrified, filled with a state of unease at the present moment, you should be. . . .

If there was ever a time that many of our fears would be most likely to materialize, this would be it. As President Trump scrambles to buy time and figure out a way to overturn the legitimate election that unseated him, the President who’s shared all of the traditional hallmarks of the autocratic tendency is looking for any way to cling to power. And Trump has a lot of unsavory characters in his orbit these days.

Between Sidney Powell, the lawyer who stood in front of the nation and talked about “releasing the Kraken” before espousing a series of conspiracy theories that sought to explain why Trump lost the election; and Michael Flynn, the disgraced former National Security Advisor who now spends his free time talking about a military coup on live TV; it’s safe to say the better characters in Trump’s inner orbit have jumped ship. . . .

It seems like just days ago I was reporting on Michael Flynn’s live TV interview where he said the President could just install the military in the battleground states where he didn’t win, force them to hold another election — one where Trump, not Biden would win — and thus steal the election from the duly elected President-elect Joe Biden. . . .

Make no mistake, the stuff Michael Flynn has been talking about over the last few weeks are dangerous. He said Trump could give the order to steal voting machines in order to hold a new election, a mock election, functionally undoing the vote of the American People.

And Trump asked about the idea, poking around for details that might help him in his quest to remain president at all costs. . . .

For me, it’s hard to put myself into the mental state of the kind of person who would burn down the Republic because they couldn’t handle losing, but it seems that Trump, Flynn, Powell, and the surprising (read: alarming) amount of followers who’ve still clung to the Trump brand like a fading trend they’d invested their life savings on, are just those kinds of people. Incapable of accepting reality as it is.

The Republican Party Chair of Arizona is even urging Trump, in those words, to “cross the Rubicon,” an obvious reference to Julius Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon River and starting of the Roman Civil War of 49 B.C. This is just one more statement in a long lineage of Confederate apologetics and civil war rhetoric. . . .

I think it’s just about next to impossible. Trump would have to find military generals willing to carry out such commands in his name. Here we’d have a draft dodger ordering career military to essentially undo the American nation. Something tells me that conversation wouldn’t go over so well. . . .

But it’s scary that Trump’s military coup moment has arrived and the discussions about such a coup are literally underway.

Psycho Plots A Coup


 Political Cartoon is by Chris Britt at Creators.com.